New to the group

Hello again Terry55,

Welcome to the lung community and thanks for joining and posting here as suggested.

I'm currently away in the US (Tucson, Arizona) and the time difference is 8 hours (7.20pm here as I type, 3.20 am in UK) so my time on the community is a little restricted.

Hopefully you'll now receive responses from other members with their experiences - I've been picking up details of some problems with the website resulting in far fewer posts than normal which might delay things a bit, but hopefully normal service will resumed imminently.

Derek.

Hi Terry55 

welcome to the group but sorry you have had to join us here. I remember when I was diagnosed I keit asking could this just be an infection? And no matter how many times they kept telling me, no it’s cancer, I just found it too hard to believe. I was 44 at the time, with 3 young daughters, and it was just all very scary. 

I think the dna test will determine if you if you are eligible for targeted therapy, but maybe someone else in the group will be able to clarify that. 

The tests seem never ending don’t they. Now you have the wait for results, which seems to be the most agonising part. It feels like nothing is happening, but behind the scenes there is a whole team of medical staff working on getting the best treatment plan for you. Everyone’s cancer is individual, so it is important to get the right plan in place. 

Wishing you all the very best for your results. Please let us know how you get on.

Hi Terry,

Right now is the worst it gets for you because all you have are questions and precious few answers. You need to figure it can only get better from now on.

Example: back in February 2018 I had a brain tumour that was the spread from stage 4 lung cancer and I was facing a 6 month prognosis. Just goes to show, the first words you get from the doctors don't mean a lot, so don't panic but wait until they deliver your final treatment plan.

How long the plan will take is, sadly, getting longer - I used to get scan results sent to my consultant the next day, 2 days tops, but now it's the best part of a week. I'm guessing there are similar delays for looking at the scan reports and then putting it all together in a Multi Discipline Team meeting that decides on treatment. You'll likely be in limbo for a week or two even if they get a wiggle on so try to keep a lid on the worries.

What you are probably facing is some level of treatment - that might be chemotherapy, immunotherapy, some kind of targetted therapy, surgery, or any combination of these. Whatever, right now the most positive thing to do is prepare yourself for treatment. Get yourself started on good diet, good sleep, regular exercise, or keep it up if you've already started. The better the shape you're in going into this process the better the outcome is likely to be. Good luck.

kind regards
Steve